Woman to stand trial in Greene homicide
WAYNESBURG — A Washington County woman accused of conspiring with her husband to kill a Fayette County man at a secluded hunting cabin in Greene County will stand trial.
Lana Kay Roe, 40, was charged Aug. 24 with criminal homicide and on Aug. 29 with providing false reports to law enforcement for her alleged role in the shooting death of Cordele Edward Patterson, 38, of Grindstone and in a bogus burglary she reported four days before the shooting in which she implicated Patterson as the suspect.
Following testimony from three state police troopers and Greene County Coroner Gregory Rohanna during a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Magisterial District Judge Lou Dayich held all charges against Roe for Greene County Court.
Roe’s husband, Jason William Roe, 32, of Daisytown, remains in Greene County Prison without bond after being charged by police with homicide and aggravated assault in Patterson’s death.
He will face a preliminary hearing later this month.
Trooper Jeremy Barni said that Patterson was shot multiple times with a shotgun by Jason Roe at the cabin on Strawn Hill Road in Wayne Township shortly before 2 p.m. Aug. 14.
Barni testified that Jason Roe also shot Lana Roe in the face during the incident but police later said that she was not an intended target and had conspired with her husband to kill Patterson.
Barni told the court that during questioning by police 10 days after the alleged homicide, Lana Roe changed her original story about the events leading up to the shooting.
He testified that Lana Roe told investigators that she and Patterson went to buy some narcotics in Waynesburg the night before the shooting and that the next morning, after Patterson went home, Jason Roe approached her at their residence in Daisytown and showed her items he said he had found inside Patterson’s residence that proved he had stolen from them.
Barni testified that the couple then went to a hardware store in Dry Tavern and purchased a 12-gauge shotgun before traveling to the cabin on Strawn Hill Road.
On the way, Lana Roe told police that Jason Roe wanted to “test fire” the weapon, so they stopped along a road and fired a few rounds at trees, Barni said.
Once at the cabin, Lana Roe told Barni that Jason Roe told her that Patterson was in the cabin and that she should “go wake him up,” Barni testified.
He testified that Lana Roe then led Patterson from the cabin and then told him she had to urinate and attempted to distance herself from him when the first shot was fired.
After the first shot, Lana Roe told police that her husband ran past her and seemed upset that he had shot her before pursuing Patterson, Barni testified.
Barni testified that Lana Roe then ran to her vehicle and while running fired several rounds from a 9mm handgun she was carrying before fleeing the scene and later going to a local hospital for treatment.
Rohanna testified that he found Patterson’s body behind a sofa inside the cabin and said that he had been shot by a shotgun in the chest and neck. He testified that he ruled the manner of death as homicide.
Police also established through testimony that Lana Roe had reported a burglary at her residence on Aug. 10 that she claimed had been committed by Patterson.
Trooper Thomas W. Hartley testified that Lana Roe told police that Patterson had stolen numerous items from their home, including 13 guns.
Barni, Hartley and Trooper Daniel Barnhart testified that through subsequent interviews, investigators learned that she and her husband had sold a .44-caliber pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle to residents in Carmichaels prior to reporting the same guns stolen to troopers.
Lana Roe and Jason Roe remain in Greene County Prison without bond.